


Molly's List

by Celandine



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Family, Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-18
Updated: 2007-06-18
Packaged: 2017-10-12 12:09:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/124680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celandine/pseuds/Celandine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Molly keeps a list of what's good and bad about being a parent.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Molly's List

**Author's Note:**

  * For [just_ann_now](https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_ann_now/gifts).



From the day that Bill was born, Molly began to keep a list. At first just in her head, but eventually it became far too long and she used a diary that she'd been given in her teens and never written in as the place where she jotted down all the good and bad things about being a parent.

Some of them were mostly the same for every child. The joyful moments when they were first able to do something new: hold their heads up, smile, toddle alone, recognize their letters, cast their first spell. Each baby was unique in how he – or she, once Ginny came along – managed it. Bill had a little wrinkle between his eyebrows as he studied his ABCs, Percy's first smile was the widest and gummiest of them all (Molly grieved as it grew more and more constrained), Fred and George walked earlier than any of the rest.

There were the bad times, too, and those more unique. At three, Charlie managed to climb and, inevitably, fall out of an oak tree, terrifying his parents. Arthur had to ask favors of several friends to put Cushioning Charms around every tree and below every window at the Burrow, after that. They wore away eventually but lasted long enough to protect the twins as well. Ron was a late talker, and Molly worried that he was slow; Arthur promised her that Ron would talk when he was ready, and to her relief he was right.

Ginny was the biggest surprise, as Molly had given up even hoping for a girl by then, but she adored having a chance to use the tiny dresses she had sewn wistfully over the years. When her friends commiserated about her having so many children, on Arthur's small salary, she brushed away the sympathy with a tart question about which would they have her give up? They might run her ragged, and worry her with their unconventional choices, and cause her to have to count every Knut, but the list of good was far longer than the bad.

**Author's Note:**

> Written for just_ann_now, at the request of telperion1, who suggested the Weasleys, prompt "the joys of parenting."


End file.
